Happy 2016!

Need help with those New Year's resolutions?  Losing weight?  Becoming stress-free?  Learning a new language, or style of cooking?  The possibilities for your personal growth in 2016 are endless!

If you need ideas or inspiration, stop by the WMCC Library!  We've got books and other materials that can help you make positive changes in 2016.

Welcome Winter!

Winter is on the way, and what better way to spend a snowed-in day than with a good book? The WMCC Library has a variety of books related to the season, including:

* Winter Blues: Everything You Need to Know to Beat Seasonal Effective Disorder
* A Guide to Nature in Winter
* Sketching Outdoors in Winter
* Northeastern Trees in Winter
* Winter Moon

And to keep the kids busy:
* Animals in Winter
* The Big Snow
* Footprints in the Snow
* White Snow, Bright Snow
* Winter's Tale

To see more of our collection, visit our online catalog of books by going to the Library's homepage at: www.wmcc.edu/student-services/fortier-library

If you can't find a the book you're looking for, just ask! We've got a great interlibrary loan system and can get almost anything.

Library Winter Break

Cat's Cradle

The first book of 2016 for the lunchtime book discussion group will be Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s Cat's Cradle.

"Cat’s Cradle is Kurt Vonnegut’s satirical commentary on modern man and his madness. An apocalyptic tale of this planet’s ultimate fate, it features a midget as the protagonist, a complete, original theology created by a calypso singer, and a vision of the future that is at once blackly fatalistic and hilariously funny."
Amazon.com review

Copies of the book and audio are available in the library.

We'll be meeting on January 14th, at noon, in the library.

Season's Readings!

Visit the Library at WMCC to check out our books, audio books, and dvds/videos honoring the many different holidays and customs being celebrated this time of year.  Merry Everything!

Thanksgiving Break

Honoring our Veterans

The Perfect Thanksgiving Dinner

Are you cooking Thanksgiving Dinner this year?  Need help?  We've got a variety of cookbooks, craft, beverages, and even napkin folding books to help you set a table that your guests will ooh and aah over.

And to entertain the kids before they grudgingly sit down at the fold-out table at the other end of the room, check out our juvenile book section too.

Life on the Mississippi

A true American classic, Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi was originally published in 1883, loosely based on Twain’s adventures as a as a young man working along the mighty Mississippi River, eventually becoming a steamboat pilot.  Part comedy, part travel log, see if you can distinguish fact from tall tale in this book that's stood the the test of time, and has even been adapted for film and musical theater.

The group will meet on Wednesday, December 9, in Room 122.  Bring your lunch!

Books are available in the library, but free ebooks can be found at:  gutenberg.org

And free audio at:  librivox.org

Classes, No. Library, Yes!

* UPDATE:  Please note that evening classes which begin after 4 p.m. will still be held at WMCC.

Boo!

Open Access for All!

You might not know it, but this is Open Access Week.  What is it, and what does it mean to you? Open Access provides free digital access to literature, without, or with limited, restrictions.


Learn more about it here:  Open Access Introduction

Another one down!

And our second puzzle is complete!  This one was a challenging 1500 pieces, and many students, staff, and community members worked on it over the past few months.  A new challenge will be on the table soon!

Bullying-Free Zone!

White Mountains Community College and the Fortier Library are committed to maintaining an environment free from bullying and harassment.  

If a student feels they have been bullied or treated unfairly on campus, he or she can submit a confidential report to the Behavior Intervention Team by clicking here:  Incident Report, or see a member of the team:  BIT Information and Contacts.

October is National Bullying Prevention Month; visit the library for books and other information to help stop bullying now.  

"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary..."

So begins the poem The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe, one of America's earliest authors of the horror/thriller genre.

For our October book, the WMCC lunchtime book discussion group will each choose a short story or poem of Poe's, and discuss it at the meeting, which will (not so coincidentally) meet around Halloween.

Copies of The Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe are available in the library.  Audios which contain Poe's stories and poems are available as well.

Join us on Wednesday, October 28, at noon, in Room 122.  Bring your lunch!

Falling Into A New Season

Autumn is just around the corner, with crisp fall days, corn stalks, piles of leaves, and frost on the pumpkins.  If you're in the mood for some warm apple crisp, we've got cook books with recipes how to make it.  Hiking in the fall is magnificent; we've got several different books to help you identify all the colorful leaves. Or, if curling up with a good story or movie is more to your style, we can help you find something to stay cozy and warm with.  Here are just a few:

Stop by the library for a longer list!

The only thing constant is change

Walking into the Fortier Library, you may notice that some changes are staring you in the face. The series of bookshelves facing the entrance now holds three different collections:

OVERSIZED is our collection of books that are too big to fit on the regular stacks.  Here you'll find atlases, art books, and a few others too.  And, at the bottom of this column, you'll also find the binders for the audio book, music, dvd, and video collections.

IN THE NEWS has books on hot topic items.  If you want to know more about a subject you've been hearing about on the evening news, or if you're writing a paper on current events, check out our new display.

NEW BOOKS is just what the name says, books that the library has recently acquired.

All items in these displays are available for checkout.  Ask the library staff for assistance!

Fall Lecture Series

Celebrating American Heroes

White Mountains Community College and the Fortier Library honor American patriots and heroes:

Friday, September 11, Patriot Day 
Thursday, September 17, Constitution Day

A Room of One's Own

Based on a series of academic lectures, in A Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf argues for the rights of female authors, and takes on the society, and sexism of her day.  First published in 1929, as a work of fiction, the author asserts that “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”

Join the WMCC lunchtime book group as we discuss this semi-autobiographical work that has stood the test of time.  We'll meet on Wednesday, September 30, at noon, in Room 122.  Copies of the book and audio are available free online, or in book format in the library.

Bring your lunch!

New Library Hours

Beginning Monday, August 31, 2015:

Back to school!

'Tis the season for yellow school buses and backpacks full of textbooks.  Whether you're a college student, or the parent of a grade schooler, this time of year is hectic and stressful.

The Fortier Library has lots of books to help deal with educational issues, such as: time management, good study skills, dealing with bullies, Word 2013, disabilities in the classroom, and many more.

And if you want a distraction from the stress and studying, we've got a great fiction section too.

Don't hesitate to ask the library staff for help--we're here for you!

Kraken date change

Our Kraken book discussion has been pushed ahead a week, and will now take place on Thursday, August 27th.  Still in the library.  Still at noon.

A few copies of the book are still available.

One puzzle down

The first puzzle has been completed at the WMCC Fortier Library (1,000 pieces)!

Puzzle #2 has been opened and the pieces are scattered...and this one is 1,500 pieces...

Fine Feathered Friends

Summer is a great time for bird watching.  Whether you you have a bird feeder outside your window, or go for long walks with binoculars, our avian friends are hard to miss.

If you want to learn more about birds, the library has a variety of books on birds, as well as bird-themed titles too.  Stop by to check them out!

• The bird artist. Norman, Howard A. Collection: Fiction, Call #: FIC NOR
• Animal-speak : the spiritual & magical powers of creatures great & small. Andrews, Ted. Collection: General Collection, Call #: BF1623.A55 A53 1993
• Bird by bird : some instructions on writing and life. Lamott, Anne. Collection: General Collection, Call #: PN147 .L315 1995
• I know why the caged bird sings. Angelou, Maya. Collection: General Collection, Call #: PS3551.N464 Z466 1970
• Birds : readings from Scientific American. Collection: General Collection, Call #: QL672 .B57 1980
• Birds of the world. Harrison, Colin James Oliver. Collection: General Collection, Call #: QL673 .H2895 1993
• A field guide to birds' nests of 285 species found breeding in the United States east of the Mississippi River. Harrison, Hal H. Collection: General Collection, Call #: QL675 .H37
• Birds and how they function. Callahan, Philip S. Collection: General Collection, Call #: QL676.2 .C34
• Trees, shrubs, and vines for attracting birds : a manual for the Northeast. DeGraaf, Richard M. Collection: General Collection, Call #: QL676.5 .D38
• The bird feeder book : an easy guide to attracting, identifying, and understanding your feeder birds.Stokes, Donald W. Collection: General Collection, Call #: QL676.5 .S87 1987
• The backyard bird feeder's bible : the A-to-Z guide to feeders, seed mixes, projects, and treats. Roth, Sally. Collection: General Collection, Call #: QL676.5 R6683 2000
• The bird garden. Kress, Stephen W. Collection: General Collection, Call #: QL676.57.N7 K747 1995
• A guide to birding. Collection: General Collection, Call #: QL677.5 .G85 2002
• The complete outfitting & source book for bird watching. Scofield, Michael. Collection: General Collection, Call #: QL677.5.S36
• The Audubon Society field guide to North American birds, eastern region. Bull, John L. Collection: General Collection, Call #: QL681 .B77
• The birder's handbook : a field guide to the natural history of North American birds : including all species that regularly breed north of Mexico. Ehrlich, Paul R. Collection: General Collection, Call #: QL681 .E37 1988
• All the birds of North America : American bird conservancy's field guide. Griggs, Jack L. Collection: General Collection, Call #: QL681 .G77 1997
• A field guide to the birds of eastern and central North America. Peterson, Roger Tory. Collection: General Collection, Call #: QL681 .P45 2002
• A field guide to the birds coloring book. Peterson, Roger Tory. Collection: General Collection, Call #: QL681 .P454 1982
• Birds of North America : a guide to field identification. Robbins, Chandler S. Collection: General Collection, Call #: QL681 .R59 1983
• The Sibley guide to bird life & behavior. Sibley, David. Collection: General Collection, Call #: QL681 .S495 2001
• Roger Tory Peterson's dozen birding hot spots. Harrison, George H. Collection: General Collection, Call #: QL682 .H37
• Kingbird highway : the story of a natural obsession that got a little out of hand. Kaufman, Kenn. Collection: General Collection, Call #: QL682 .K38 2000

Welcome to the Dog Days of Summer

Those hot, sultry days of summer about upon us.  What a great time to kick back at the beach with a good book!

Check out the library's dog-related book display for some ideas.  Here are a few examples from our collection:

• The dogs of March. Hebert, Ernest
• White fang. London, Jack
• Don't shoot the dog!: the new art of teaching and training. Pryor, Karen
• Following Atticus : forty-eight high peaks, one little dog, and an extraordinary friendship. Ryan, Tom
• My dog Skip. Morris, Willie
• Solo: the story of an African wild dog. Lawick, Hugo van
• The pawprints of history : dogs and the course of human events. Coren, Stanley 

Trivia about the Dog Days:
To the Greeks and Romans, the “dog days” occurred around the day when Sirius (known as the "dog star") appeared to rise just before the sun, in late July. They referred to these days as the hottest time of the year, a period that could bring fever, or even catastrophe.  The ancient Greeks thought of the constellation Canis Major as a dog chasing Lepus, the hare. The star Sirius is the dog’s nose; the Greeks called it the “dog star".

From National Geographic  

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/07/150710-dog-days-summer-sirius-star-astronomy-weather-language/

Is it safe to go into the ocean?

"Kraken is the traditional name for gigantic sea monsters, and this book introduces one of the most charismatic, enigmatic, and curious inhabitants of the sea: the squid...Kraken examines other equally enthralling cephalopods, including the octopus and the cuttlefish, and explores their otherworldly abilities, such as camouflage and bioluminescence." 

goodreads.com

Wendy Williams's Kraken: the curious, exciting, and slightly disturbing science of squid is the next book that the WMCC lunchtime discussion group will be reading.  Books are available in the library.

Join the group on August 20, at noon, in the WMCC Library. Bring your lunch!

Independence Day

On Friday, July 3, 2015, the WMCC Fortier Library will be closed in celebration of Independence Day.

If you're looking for 4th-of-July related materials to enjoy over the long weekend, here are just a few of the many that the library has to offer:

• 4th of July [sound recording]. Patterson, James. 
• The American journey : a history of the United States. 
• The American War of Independence. Wells, Peter. 
• Thomas Paine's Common sense : the call to independence. Paine, Thomas. 
• The Declaration of Independence. Jefferson, Thomas. 
• Inflated : how money and debt built the American dream. Whalen, R. Christopher. 
• First facts about American heroes. King, David C.

Ah, summer

Heading out on summer vacation and want something to distract as you relax?

The WMCC Fortier Library has something for the whole family!  From kids books to cook books, audios to adventure, for your summer reading and listening pleasure, check out the following:

• The secret life of bees [sound recording]. Kidd, Sue Monk. Collection: Call #: AV PS3611.I44 S38 2001
• The end of summer. Pilcher, Rosamunde. Collection: Fiction, Call #: FIC PIL
• Summer; a novel. Wharton, Edith. Collection: Fiction, Call #: FIC WHA
• The summer of love : Haight-Ashbury at its heighest. Anthony, Gene. Collection: General Collection, Call #: F869.S35 A57 1980
• Summer fun! : 60 activities for a kid-perfect summer. Williamson, Susan. Collection: General Collection, Call #: GV1203 .W673 1999
• The boys of summer. Kahn, Roger. Collection: General Collection, Call #: GV875.B7 K3 2000
• Nature writings : the story of my boyhood and youth, my first summer in the Sierra, the mountains of California, Stickeen, selected essays. Muir, John. Collection: General Collection, Call #: QH31.M9 A3 1997
• The Sierra Club summer book. Allison, Linda. Collection: General Collection, Call #: QH48 .A44
• Summer world : a season of bounty. Heinrich, Bernd. Collection: General Collection, Call #: QL753 .H448 2009
• The seal summer. Hooke, Nina Warner. Collection: General Collection, Call #: QL795.S43 H6
• Summer vegetables. Collection: General Collection, Call #: SB321 .S85 1988
• Mrs. Appleyard's summer kitchen. Kent, Louise Andrews. Collection: General Collection, Call #: TX715 .K35
• The wild table : seasonal foraged food and recipes. Green, Connie. Collection: General Collection, Call #: TX823 .G745 2010
• Flower fairies of the summer : poems and pictures. Barker, Cicely Mary. Collection: Juvenile, Call #: JUV E BAR
• Albie the lifeguard. Borden, Louise. Collection: Juvenile, Call #: JUV E BOR
• A summertime song. Haas, Irene. Collection: Juvenile, Call #: JUV E HAA
• Time of wonder. McCloskey, Robert. Collection: Juvenile, Call #: JUV E MCC
• The summer of the swans. Byars, Betsy Cromer. Collection: Juvenile, Call #: JUV FIC BYA
• Seventeenth summer. Daly, Maureen. Collection: Juvenile, Call #: JUV FIC DAL
• Summer pony. Doty, Jean Slaughter. Collection: Juvenile, Call #: JUV FIC DOT
• The canning season. Horvath, Polly. Collection: Juvenile, Call #: JUV FIC HOR
• Summer stories. Thacker, Nola. Collection: Juvenile, Call #: JUV FIC THA
• Moon over Manifest. Vanderpool, Clare. Collection: Juvenile, Call #: JUV FIC VAN
• On Granddaddy's farm. Allen, Thomas B. Collection: Juvenile, Call #: JUV S519 .A45 1989
• 
  

Library Summer Hours, Beginning 5/12/2015

Are you puzzled?

When you find yourself with spare time, or need a distraction from writing a paper, try to match a puzzle piece or two on the WMCC library's new jigsaw puzzle table.  Puzzles will be available until completed, and will then be replaced with new ones.

Grand Auto Show at WMCC

White Mountains Community College has planned a Grand Auto Show for Saturday, May 2, 2015, from 10 am to 2 pm. Scheduled activities will include a car show, Chassis Dynamometer Testing, a 50-50 Raffle, and a live band. 1950’s theme food will be prepared by the Culinary Arts Program and available for purchase. Proceeds from the Grand Auto Show will be used toward scholarships to support students at White Mountains Community College.

Visit the Library to see our display of automobile related books.  

Feeling A Little Stiff?

The next title for the WMCC Lunchtime Discussion group is Stiff, the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach.

From the author's webpage:
"For 2,000 years, cadavers -- some willingly, some unwittingly -- have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. Stiff is an oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem."

Books and audios are available in the library.

Join the group on April 23, at noon, in the WMCC Library.  Bring your lunch!

Springtime!

Mother Nature might not want to admit it, but according to the calendar, spring has sprung!  If you're looking for something to help you say goodbye to winter, we can help.  Here's a list of books available for checkout that will inspire you to think spring:

• The spring of the ram. Dunnett, Dorothy. Collection: Fiction, Call #: FIC DUN
• Spring collection. Krantz, Judith. Collection: Fiction, Call #: FIC KRA
• Salute to spring. Le Sueur, Meridel. Collection: Fiction, Call #: FIC LES
• Tropic of Cancer : Black spring :The colossus of Maroussi. Miller, Henry. Collection: Fiction, Call #: FIC MIL
• Forcing the spring : the transformation of the American environmental movement. Gottlieb, Robert. Collection: General Collection, Call #: GE180 .G68 1993
• North with the spring; a naturalist's record of a 17,000 mile journey with the North-American spring.Teale, Edwin Way. Collection: General Collection, Call #: QH104 .T42
• The gentle subversive : Rachel Carson, Silent spring, and the rise of the environmental movement. Lytle, Mark H. Collection: General Collection, Call #: QH31.C33 L98 2007
• Silent spring. Carson, Rachel. Collection: General Collection, Call #: QH545.P4 .C38 1987
• How to know the spring flowers : pictured-keys for determining the more common spring-flowering herbaceous plants with suggestions and aids for their study. Cuthbert, Mabel (Jaques). Collection: General Collection, Call #: QK110 .C8
• A spring without bees : how colony collapse disorder has endangered our food supply. Schacker, Michael. Collection: General Collection, Call #: SF538.5.P65 S33 2008
• Amateur sugar maker. Perrin, Noel. Collection: General Collection, Call #: TP395 .P47 1992
• The maple syrup cookbook. Haedrich, Ken. Collection: General Collection, Call #: TX767.M3 H34 1989
• The wild table : seasonal foraged food and recipes. Green, Connie. Collection: General Collection, Call #: TX823 .G745 2010
• The runaway bunny. Brown, Margaret Wise. Collection: Juvenile, Call #: JUV E BRO
• Buster's sugartime. Brown, Marc Tolon. Collection: Juvenile, Call #: JUV E BRO
• The tiny seed. Carle, Eric. Collection: Juvenile, Call #: JUV E CAR
• The April rabbits. Cleveland, David. Collection: Juvenile, Call #: JUV E CLE
• Everything spring. Esbaum, Jill. Collection: Juvenile, Call #: JUV E ESB
• In the small, small pond. Fleming, Denise. Collection: Juvenile, Call #: JUV E FLE
• It's spring!. Glaser, Linda. Collection: Juvenile, Call #: JUV E GLA
• Bunny, my Honey. Jeram, Anita. Collection: Juvenile, Call #: JUV E JER
• Pat the bunny. Kunhardt, Dorothy Meserve. Collection: Juvenile, Call #: JUV E KUN
• Show and Tell bunnies. Lasky, Kathryn. Collection: Juvenile, Call #: JUV E LAS
• The bunny book,. Scarry, Richard. Collection: Juvenile, Call #: JUV E SCA
• Read to your bunny. Wells, Rosemary. Collection: Juvenile, Call #: JUV E WEL

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

Meet Christopher Boone. 

Christopher Boone is 15. He knows "all the countries of the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7,507". He lives in Swindon with his father and Toby, his pet rat. He abhors all yellow and brown things, thinks he would make a good astronaut, and has never been further than the end of the road on his own until his discovery of the "murder" of his neighbour's dog turns him into an amateur detective.

Oh, and Christopher Boone has Asperger's syndrome.
                                                                   from theguardian.com

The WMCC Lunchtime Discussion group will meet to discuss The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon, on Thursday, March 26, at noon-ish, in the library.  Bring your lunch!

Copies of the book and audio are in the library.

Skiing in New Hampshire

Life Interrupted

For those families living with mental illness, life as they previously knew it, is quite interrupted.  Stigmas and misconceptions surrounding mental illness make it a very difficult issue to talk about,  to find answers, and to get help for themselves or their loved ones.

On Wednesday, February 25, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill will present the program "Life Interrupted" at 6 p.m. at the White Mountains Community College Fortier Library.  This is a free event, and open to the public.  Light refreshments will be served.

For more information, please contact Sandy Alonzo at 603-915-1801, or naminh@gmail.com.  For more information on NAMI, visit their website at www.naminh.org.

Love is in the air

St. Valentine's Day (Saturday, February 14), love it or hate it, we've got the book/audio/movie for you.  Stop by to find books on romance, chocolate, breakups, marriage, roses, candy, wine, and--of course--love.

Back to normal

Spring semester has begun at White Mountains Community College!



The library's semester hours are:

• Monday-Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Closed Sundays and holidays.  If you have questions, please call 603-342-3087.

A squirrel and a chipmunk walk into a bar...

The American author and essayist, David Sedaris, is known for being funny.  We'll discover how funny in Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, a collection of animal-themed satirical pieces where he examines our society and adds his own special twist.

Copies of the book and audio are available in the library.

Join us on Thursday, February 19, at noon, in Room 211, when the WMCC Lunchtime Book Discussion group will meet to discuss our 123rd book.  Bring your lunch!